


The Poker Game

by smack



Series: Learn to Live [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Might turn into something else if I can get the brain power up, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 03:04:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11049969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smack/pseuds/smack
Summary: Written for a prompt on The Fake Redhead's Quote Library (Link in Author's notes):Your character, a superhero, is sitting in the kitchen when his partner comes in, their arch nemesis willingly in tow.When the superhero asks what the heck is going on, the partner says: "I won him in a poker game."Well. There are no superheroes...





	The Poker Game

Harry sits reading his morning newspaper. Ginny complains often that it makes him seem old, but he enjoys reading his news from a paper.  
His morning ritual was nearly complete, coffee drunk, news read, sun reaching its 6 am position in the sky, when Ginny comes in from her graveyard shift at the hospital and trailing behind her is a calm and cool Draco Malfoy.

Harry's first thought was something along the lines of "He looks exactly the same" before he blinked and his mouth dropped open. 

"What?" he asked Ginny. She smirked at him before waving her hand at the whole of Harry's childhood rival. "...the hell?" 

Her smirk turned into a grin and a wink as she pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and gestured at Draco to sit. "I won him in a poker game." She poured a cup of coffee for the unexpected guest and sat it in front of him. "Sugar? Cream?" 

Draco looked at the cup with a slight frown. "I prefer tea." He said with a raised eyebrow at Ginny. 

"That's nice." She said dismissively. To Harry, she batted her eyelashes. 

"A poker game? I didn't know you knew how to play poker." Harry said. Ginny looked at him sardonically. 

"I work with muggles, Harry. At a hospital where we sit all night sometimes doing nothing. I learned how to play poker my first day." 

"And how did..." Harry nodded at Draco as if to encompass everything about him. 

Draco hummed into his coffee as he loosened his scarf and tie, crossing his legs and making himself comfortable. "I'm afraid in my self imposed exile, I've fallen in with some rather unsavory types." He waved an aristocratic, long fingered hand at Ginny. "Including your freckled companion." He glanced back at Ginny, who was leaning against the cabinet next to the sink. "Girlfriend? Fiance? Significant Other?" 

Ginny smiled. "We prefer the term Partner."

Draco snorted delicately. "Of course you do." He set the coffee mug on the table and crossed his hands over his knees and stared at Harry intently. Harry stared back, nonplussed. 

"Ginny. Can I speak to you? Over here?" She nodded and they moved into the hallway around the corner from the kitchen. "What, exactly, is Draco Malfoy doing in our kitchen? How long is he staying?" Ginny shrugged.

"I won him. He's here until I say he can go. Honestly, I think he's a little lonely." She smiled at him. "After Voldemort's defeat, the Malfoy's have been out of sight out of mind, but" She shrugged again. "I found him in a Muggle hospital. He's volunteering. Malfoy, volunteering!" Ginny shook her head. "He's reading to children and elderly. He's fetching snacks for the A&E waiting room. He's behaving like a human being, no, not only a human, he's acting like a Muggle."

"That's as wonderful as it is unexpected, but how does that translate into him being here? And for that matter, how did Malfoy become prize of a poker game to start with?" Ginny sighed. 

"Harry, I thought he might need some... friends? He used to be an evil toad and he made all of our lives hell, but now, he's sad and pathetic. Like an ugly puppy." 

"He's got his mother." Harry argued, still completely befuddled at how his morning had changed. "And Goyle. And his Father for however much he counts." He rubbed his forhead. "I just don't... understand." 

Ginny crossed her arms defensively. "I just... I took pity on him, Harry. I wanted to do something. I spend all my days in a Muggle hospital to learn how to put people back together without magic. He does it to learn how to be human I think." She glanced back around the corner and sighed. "Just, do this for me. Please." Harry sighed, already knowing he'd do practically anything she asked. 

"What am I supposed to do with him?" he asked, resigned to his Tuesday morning not resembling any he's had before.

**Author's Note:**

> [The Fake Redhead Library](https://thefakeredhead.com/writing-tips/writing-prompts/)


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